the exile wrote:As said the jobs are short term, various hours etc. According to tonights news there are about 800 jobs, 500 filled locally and approx. 200 from Poland with about 100 left. All the jobs are apparently minimum wage and in some cases not enough hours for some to take for such a short period of time. Maybe if Next considered paying a decent wage rather than thinking of their profits and expecting the taxpayer to subsidise them as an employer the story would be different.
Yep, though it's not just the wage that's the issue. It's the terms as well that are vital. As you rightly point out they're low hours for a short period. These type of jobs often are no or very low guaranteed hours yet require the employee to be available throughout the entire week, often including evenings and weekends. Not to mention childcare or transport issues for some people.
Then add in they're often boring, mind numbing jobs, tightly controlled by rubbish managers/supervisors who have no idea how to manage/supervise staff.
Then add in that there's little to no opportunity for further work.
Then add in that any money earned will be deducted from any JSA payments and you can see why, even taking the wage out of the equation, people would rather stay on JSA. It's just far easier for people.
And before anyone says it, the way to change it isn't to make JSA worse, it's to make employment better.
As a side issue, I'd actually rather we were importing labour for this kind of work than skilled labour just because both public and private sector can't be bothered to train and skill British labour properly.
